We went as a family to see The Avengers, and we all liked it. We didn't anticipate the crowd on a Tuesday night, but it was packed, and we sat 3 rows up from the front, which surprisingly wasn't too bad.

As has been said in many reviews, the humor between the characters was fun, the CGI was amazing, and be sure to stay through the end credits, because more is a'comin'.

We give it 4 stars.

That said, there was a great article from Vogue about creating eyes to match the movie characters. They are very beautiful!

http://www.vogue.in/content/how-get-superhero-eyes#5

OPI has released a nail collection based on Spider Man.

If you decide to take up the challenge, email me a picture and I'll post it on my blog.

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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I felt like wearing turquoise on my eyes today, and outside of the Summer set by Mary Kay, my go-to for turquoise is Aromaleigh. Kristen has beautiful shades of greens, turquoises and teals, and I probably have most of them, at least in sample sizes, which are quite long lasting. They are vibrant and beautiful, if you are on a quest for this color.

I also felt like doing a 5 min makeup today, which I did. The only reason it took longer is because I kept thinking of things I wanted to take pictures of, such as the Chanel container and my powder. So I would digress to that. Aromaleigh is really fool proof. Easy to apply; always looks great and lasts all day. I knew I could do a 5 min makeup with AL. And I had a busy, busy day today, meetings, errands, music lesson, pick and delivery to school and more.

In all honesty, there were two things I meant to do and got sidetracked: concealer, and some of the new Arbonne white shadow in the inner corners of my eyes. That would have taken 30 sec. I just forgot.

Eyes: all Aromaleigh, except where noted
Base: Nude Frost, then BE Queen Phyllis
Lids: Azure
Drylined Top: Aqua Nightmare (love this color!)
Drylined bottom: Caribe, just a touch more blue
Mascara: Stiletto
Tightlined top: NYX pen black
Brows: Merle Norman powder

Primer: Avon Magix
Foundation: L'Oreal True Match, N1 Soft Ivory While it looks like this foundation covers well, when applying it, I'm a little disappointed in how sheer it looks in the pictures. I like my skin to show through, but I like it a little less sheer. I will likely use this more as a highlighter in the future, if I try it again, and it is equally sheer.
Rouge under my sparkly mix of powder: Chanel stick
Blush over: Arbonne Promise
Hightlight: Arbonne Bashful lightest blush

Lips: CG 912+928 + Stila Silver Mix
First: Guerlain liplift primer and conditioner and all round magic product
912 and 928 are plumping colors
1/2 and 1/2 each color, one on each lip, smooshed; then Stila-Silver Mix gloss when some of the lippie was gone to refresh it...this lipstick (928) is the one that hurt my lips after using it exclusively for months. After using every lip balm known to man and still having problems wearing anything on my lips, I remembered I had the Liplift. It fixed the problem with one application. I now have one in my purse and in the bathroom. And I made sure I used it before these colors. I never felt the product sting my lips. 912 is a particularly pretty soft shade. Perhaps tomorrow I'll show it alone.

What do you think?
Do you like to use plumping lipsticks or teals and turquoises for shadows? What is your favorite AL color?

Kristen's birthday is coming up and she'd love to have people participate in nominating her business. See the info here.

Karin
www.savvythinker.com
do not steal my posts -- you know who you are

Originally posted 2009-08-28 17:41:19.

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This is just a quick summary of some various ideas about makeup.

Powders, creams or lotions?
If your skin is oily, work more with powders than creams or lotions.

If your skin is dry, work more with lotions or creams. Use powder sparingly because it might not soften.

Soften the top step Usually not necessary for oily skin.
For drier skin:
Just as foiling is a concept for eye makeup, dampening the face after applying product softens the edges, mutes a powdery look making it appear more like skin, not makeup.

Damp, not wet.

A damp sea sponge offers a bit more control than spritzing with a product that might not be as even.

Dark recedes; Light or bright brings forward
This concept works for every part of your face: eyes, cheeks, nose...

You want to lift, not drag down.

Contouring the face
Use the concept Dark recedes; Light or bright brings forward to your advantage.

If you are very fair, like me, contouring might tend to look like dirt on the face. It is more subtle to use bronzer (matte in hollow of cheeks) (with some glimmer along edges of face) or a slightly darker shade of powder in those areas.

Contouring can be done with very defined edges, as Oprah's face is contoured. You can examine her cover pictures to see how contouring is laid out, because it is defined enough that you can see it. This looks good for magazine shoots and TV, but too made up for RL unless you are a star.

More subtle: follow the outlines, but with less difference in tonality.

Highlighting the face
Highlight wherever light would touch your face (the high points) and up the center of your face to draw the eye. This can be done with powder, creams or lotions.

Go for a mix of these two ideas
In general, whatever is under your top layer, looks like your skin
This creates an optical illusion that looks like your skin.
Most people are not aware of this concept or how well it works.

Use a cream or powder blush and highlighter/contouring under your last step (powder or mineral.)

If you are using a cream or liquid foundation, use a cream or liquid blush under your finishing powder. If you try to use a powder blush at this point, it will most likely grab and not go on even. Cream or lotion works better.

OTOH, if you are using minerals in a powder form, you can use cream, liquid or powder in this step, then finish with your sheer setting powder.

Whatever is on top of your last step, looks like makeup, not your skin
Putting some color under your last step, means you can use less in this step. Therefore, while you have color, you look less made up.

Highlight or contour with powders or minerals at this point. Use a cream or lotion, if you have drier skin.

Blush can be powders, minerals or creams depending on the look you are going for and what your skin type is.

Lips
Highlight just above the dip in your upper lip to draw the eye to your lips.

If one lip is smaller than the other and you would like to balance them more, line just outside the smaller lip line with pencil. Be sure to fill in the whole lip with pencil so it holds better and doesn't just leave you with an outline. This can match your lipstick or match your lip line. Experiment with how far outside you can go and still have it look natural.

Contour the lips to make them look fuller by using darker shades at the outer edges or highlighting the center of the lips with gloss or something that glimmers.

Nose
To slim a nose: use deeper color on sides than top; use a slightly lighter color along ridge of nose.
Nose too long: This sometimes happens with aging. Use deeper color on tip.

Chin
Use the same theory as for the nose. If your chin is too prominent, use a little contour.

Cheeks
You are looking to make high cheek bones, rosy cheeks, and slim hollows.

Use light and bright along apples of cheeks and above.

Use deeper in contours of the cheeks, if you wish to try contouring, to slim the hollows.

Karin

Originally posted 2009-03-17 10:16:52.

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Another 5 mins makeup, done quickly. It's kind of fun to limit myself to one shadow color -- and it's easy to do with this new shape. When the MUA did it for me, she basically mixed colors together to get the depth of shade she wanted. I figure I can do that too if a single shade isn't sufficient.
Eyes:
Base: Mary Kay shadow
Lids in new shape: Lancome Bluebirds Fly
Inner lids: Chanel off-white
Concealer: MK
Lined: Chanel Mercury/Sapphire pencil, sadly discontinued, love this darker blue
Lined lower waterline: MAC white pencil -- I like this look sometimes -- and I've also tightlined the top with white, which is interesting -- to do it right on the top, I should use white on the inner and outer edges and dark in the middle, maybe I'll try that tomorrow, because using white on the entire top shows the white starkly against the color of my eye, but it's really cool against the white part of my eye
Mascara: Stiletto
Brows: Anastasia pen

Primer: Sheer Cover
Foundation: Lancome minerals followed by Lancome mineral powder
Technique: use small amount of minerals on brush, spritz brush with Clinique Moisture Surge Face Spray -- apply. I saw this done by someone else, but never tried it myself before today. I didn't realize how easy it would be to do or how well it would work.

This gives me more of the finish that I like, and in a sense, it is almost like making a liquid mineral foundation on your brush, only it is (maybe) faster than applying in separate steps (liquid, then powder.) Anyway, this is probably the first time I've felt that a mineral foundation worked for my skin type.

Nose: MAC concealer on my nose, buffed in/on and using a triangle sponge

Lips:
Guerlain coffret, the deepest crayon color + Gloss top coat, rimmed with Beaute Paramour
Pretty color! The crayon has a sort of copper look to it, not really red or pink as it looked.

I don't know why my face is in the shadows in the picture. I must have turned away from the light source.

What do you think?

Have you used this technique to apply mineral foundation?
I'm going to try this technique again this week and try using mineral foundation more often. It's nice to have another method that works.

Karin

Originally posted 2009-07-19 18:53:06.

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I wanted to show a technique here that is a way to have a more pouty, voluminous look or to give your lips added dimension. Remember it shows up here a little more than in RL, because of the flash.

I was careful that the edges were blended sufficiently that no one would be able to tell the technique, but it needed to be strong enough that the technique would show when photographed. Even so, it is a more made up look than I generally wear in the daytime.

It's in my repertoire though!

Begin
I began with an E.L.F. gloss in a pan, Mocha Maniac Candy Shop, that came as a free gift in my order. I would not normally pick this color, so I delayed trying it. Surprise! It is very pretty on. More neutral than brown, and tastes just fine. Even if you had to pay for it, at $2 it is a steal.

About an hour later after some of the gloss was gone, I added the technique:

First:
I lined around the outside lip line, smudging the line downward a little into the gloss, then filled in at the outer edges with more pencil.

Apply Gloss to center of lips
When I was satisfied with that, I topped the center only with a Clinique gloss, Whisper. (Very light pink with glitter.)

I could have used a different top gloss, but wanted to work with the Clinique as I hadn't used it in a while. In RL it was subtle. I probably would prefer to work with a more glittery gloss that would have highlighted better and would have made the darker outer corners recede, as well as be less visible. I had to do it a couple of times before it showed up enough.

And another view:

If I do it again today, I will post another picture here. You can see the FOTD that I used this lip with. (Thursday FOTD).

Karin

Originally posted 2009-03-20 09:57:59.

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I particularly like the shimmer of Arbonne lippies. They are, as I've said, an updated 60's look.

I find I'm really enjoying using them with other lippies on hand, to make my other lippies look Arbonnized. Plus, it expands my colors of Arbonne, since I don't have a full range.

After all, there are 28 shades of lipsticks (I have 3 and ordered 2 more); 10 shades of prep and plump (I've ordered 1 to try the formula); 6 shades of lipgloss (I've ordered 2); 6 shades of lip pencils. Plus there are 6 shades of lip gloss in the teen line (I love these and have ordered 2.)

Krista Embry uses Arbonne in Impact Your Image. It's interesting to me that she never uses a lipstick alone, but usually with two pencils, a gloss, etc. I've done that for years. It sure is fun, anyway! Once you learn the techniques, it is very fast. The only time it takes is to decide which lippies or lip products you will combine.

I find for my lifestyle and the place I live which is decidedly casual, I prefer to line with gloss now, rather than the dozen(s) of lip pencils I have on hand. I use them only very occasionally. Rimming with lipgloss is a younger look. It youthens (I love the word and picked it up from someone else.)

Arbonne Tickled on one lip with
MAC Popster lip conditioner on the other lip -- I really love the feel of this conditioner. I'll likely buy more colors or a clear in it. Bookgirl was given one of their conditioners for Christmas by a friend and she loves the feel of it too. Not to mention it is a pretty color alone or layered with others.
Rimmed and up the center with Beauté Allure

And here is Tickled with:
Beauticontrol Subdued Magenta on one lip, smooshed; rimmed and up the center with Beauté Allure

If I try Tickled with more shades, I'll update this post.

To buy Arbonne from Bookgirl, if you don't have a representative, go here.

Karin

Originally posted 2009-06-15 08:56:13.

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Today I wanted to copy one of the images in the Mary Kay Look Magazine. The colors are from the Spring 2009 Luminous Eyes pan. You can see the other FOTD here and here.

Primer: Avon Magix
Foundation: L'Oreal True Match N1 Blends easily, very sheer

Base: Lancome Shooting Star (cream in tube); then my sparkly mix for eyes
Outer corners and Crease: Lime
Inner corners: Brown

Tightlined Lined upper and lower: MK Bahama Blue (LE collection)
Drylined outside Tightlined upper and lower: Turquoise
Drylined on top of that: MAC Reflects Purple duo, to give it some spark and soften
Concealer: AL Pink, followed by MK Facial Highlighting Pen Color 2
Brows: La Prairie pencil
Mascara upper: Guerlain Maxi Lash Wonder Black
Mascara lower: Lancome Definicils Black, sample size

Lips: Contoured in blue, see separate post for pix as I went
Entire lip: MK Pink Diamonds gloss
Outer corners: MK Ocean Blue eye pencil (I wanted a softer blue for day, not a navy.)
Outline lip and over outer corners: Clarins Nude Lip Pencil
Highlighted center of lip: Too Faced Mermaid Girls Dig Pearls gloss
Blush: AL femmefatale rocks! sonic rouge, using BE FO blush brush
Highlighting Center of Face: MK 4 shades in 2 pans, brush over all 4

I like the colors on the eyes placed like this, rather than placing the brown in the crease. It's a brighter look. I can hardly see the brown in the inner corners and I went over it more than once. I was afraid it would be too dark there, but it isn't.

How do you like it?

Karin

Originally posted 2009-03-20 13:04:50.

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It's been a while since I've done a FOTD, just lazy I guess! This is one of my favorite color combinations. I keep the two shades together so I don't forget how nicely they go together. But I had forgotten how I had worn them the last time, because it had been a while. So today was just how it felt at the time.

Eyes: the usual mascara and brow
BE Primer, then Queen Phyllis for a smooth surface
Outer corners: AL lulu lustre
Inner corners and drylined lower: AL tanaquil lustre
Lined top and lower: Tidal Wavegel liner
Tightlined top and lower: MAC shade fluidline

Face:
Maybelline Matte Mousse # 1 -- I usually use # 3. In RL this does not look this light -- it looks too light when photographed. I used # 3 to contour my lower cheeks.
Highlight up the center: Revlon (new) (pink)
Chanel stick rouge
My sparkly mix of powder
Lancome Petticoat Pink Cream Blush

Lips: AL Pout with a bit of sparkle in the center
Just a simple lip, but such a pretty color, neutral, but with a touch of pink.

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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A weekend look using the L'Oreal minerals that I reviewed yesterday.

I reworked my eyes, I thought, from the day I wore Burnt Roses in the crease to show it is possible to get it softer. See it here. I see that I reversed the colors on the lids, so it's not exactly the same.

Crease: AL Burnt Roses
Outer corners and drylined under the eyes: Strawberry Despair
Inner Corners: Persephone
Lined upper and lower with Black Cherry gel liner, using the back end of a liner brush.
Concealer: YSL Eclat

Sunscreen: Neutrogena.

Primer: Sheer Cover
Foundation, Glow (used up the center of my face), Blush (on cheekbones): all L'Oreal minerals
Rouge: NARS Riviera stick
Powder: my sparkly mix, that's all; I did not use the Hyaluronic today.
My take:
L'Oreal went on well; I like the colors. A few hours later it drifted into the pores of my nose and I had to fix it by rubbing it off. That is not unusual for me which is why I generally do not put anything on my nose at all. I think it looks better naked than with little light dots on it, LOL!

I used my Lancome mineral foundation brush to apply the foundation with. I just love, love, love that brush!

Lips: NYX Lips B 52, a warm pink brown, darker on than I expected from the tube.

Here's the picture of the day I didn't like the crease:

Which one do you prefer?

Karin

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Finished look:

Lips: Contoured in blue
Entire lip: MK Pink Diamonds gloss
Outer corners: MK Ocean Blue eye pencil (I wanted a softer blue for day, not a navy.)
Outline lip and over outer corners: Clarins Nude Lip Pencil

Technique
Begin with a shade of lipstick or gloss over the entire lip.
If you are using a lipstick, don't use a lot, as you are going to use pencil over the top.
Alternatively, you can use pencil first, then do the entire lip with gloss or lipstick.
Entire lip: MK Pink Diamonds gloss

Step 1 Contouring with blue
For evening, you can use a navy. For day, pick a softer shade.
The color you choose will show up more on lighter lips than darker lips.
Smudge the blue inward to the center with your finger or a lip brush so the color blends.

Outer corners: MK Ocean Blue eye pencil (I wanted a softer blue for day, not a navy.)

Step 2 Outline your lips and go over the blue
Outline lip and over outer corners: Clarins Nude Lip Pencil
Blend it downward into the lip so the line isn't abrupt. You can choose any color here: a color that will pop the lipstick or gloss or a neutral, as I chose.

Step 3 Highlight with gloss up the middle
I prefer a sparkly gloss -- the sparklier, the better.

It's a fun and dramatic look that can be tempered for daytime. It's really quite easy and fast. It takes more time to write it up than it does to do it. If your lips need balancing, you can do a bit of this on one lip only.

Let me know if you try it.

Karin

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